1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data handling and information encoding methods, and more specifically to a method for enabling intelligent post-processing of differing data types in an imaging system.
2. History of the Art
With the technological advances made in the field of computer imaging devices, i.e., monitors and printers, increased emphasis has been applied to achieving clearer and higher resolution output with increased cost effectiveness. The drive for a "better picture" has resulted in an influx of high quality printing and display techniques, and the practical extinction of the lower quality prior art devices.
Traditional imaging systems normally produce a final output image using two distinct steps. In a first step, imaging data is commonly encoded and placed into a frame store. In a second step, when the frame store is at least partially filled, this encoded data is extracted and transmitted to a marking device, i.e., a printer. Traditionally, the frame store has contained the precise marking pattern to be utilized by the marking device when producing the final output image.
For example, in an ordinary prior art bi-level imaging system, with a marking device capable of either creating a mark at a given spot or leaving the spot blank, the frame store consists of binary memory with each bit in the memory representing a spot on the device's output medium. For imaging systems which include marking devices capable of imaging in multiple colors or gray levels, each spot to be imaged by the device is represented by a corresponding value in the frame store that specifies the color or luminance of that particular spot. Unfortunately, traditional methods of imaging allow only straight-forward post-processing (processing performed after transmission of the imaging data from the CPU to the marking device) of the frame-stored data. This, in turn, limits the quality of the output that can be extracted from the devices.